This tool will create in the given directory a collection of JPEG pictures and an HTML file containing the JavaScript code to animate the panorama, as well as a ZIP file containing the above files for convenient deployment on a website.

ZofzPCB is a gerber viewer geared to make verification quick and easy. It shows the board and layers in 3D so it’s easier to spot errors. It can also make each trace a different color so the location is clearer. [via]

Whether you’re a first-time circuit board designer or you’ve been doing it for years, you know how difficult it can be to visualize layout, spacing, and relative size in PCB layout software. You might have also experienced that uneasy “I hope everything is right” feeling when you submit your design files for manufacturing. You’re not alone! I’ve ordered boards with silkscreen text way too small to read, components on the wrong side of the board, and even had my silkscreen and soldermask layers reversed by mistake! Each of these times, the real problem was not having a good view of the design.

I came up with a solution to these problems and designed (with the help of a web developer) an online 3D Gerber viewer that anyone can use. If you’re not familiar with Gerber files, they are the files that layout software (like Eagle, Altium, etc) export for manufacturing. They describe everything pertinent about your board that will be required to actually create your PCB.

A 3D Printer that delivers the resolution you crave. Michael Joyce writes:

Right from the beginning I wanted the B9Creator to be different. Anodized aluminum construction, stainless steel hardware, many thoughtful features that enhance normal operation… all these things set the B9Creator apart from the DIY 3D Printer herd. But when it comes to printing complex, detailed and fragile objects, this is where the B9Creator really shines bright!

Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass along with Samir Hanna, VP of Consumer Products both spoke about Autodesk and the support of Makers. Carl spoke about the “Post-Industrial Manufacturing and the Future of Making” explaining he has been a maker for over 30 years making things in his shop and then showed some great examples and research going on in the future of manufacturing including a 3D printer that prints building and another that can print human organs. Carl also mentioned the Consumer Products from Autodesk “are really aimed for kids 7-70 years old. Samir Hanna spoke about the changing in the role of consumers and design and how Autodesk is providing powerful yet easy to use tools for people to unleash their creativity as everyone has some ability to be creative and Autodesk wants to enable that with the growing 123D products.

I have been dreaming about having a 3D Printer at home for many years, but the ones with good quality are not affordable and the low costs just deliver poor quality. Sounds crazy but I decided to build a high resolution 3D Printer by myself at home (people actually said that I was crazy and this was impossible). The funny thing I never saw this type of machines in real life, and still haven’t seen one besides the one I built.

Now that I succeed building the first prototype, the target is to bring this low cost 3D Printer to every home, so we are developing the first affordable one with high resolution. I hope you enjoy our blog, follow us and you can have this printer in your home soon.

Printing three dimensional objects with very fine details using two-photon lithography can now be achieved orders of magnitude faster than similar devices in a breakthrough by Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) researchers.

The 3D printing process uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a hardened line of solid polymer a few hundred nanometers wide.

(The slicer plugins of Pleasant3D were open source from the beginning. I’ll mark the old open source BitBucket repository as obsolete.) I’d be very happy, if some of you 3D-printing (or CNC-milling) Mac developers out there would help with the further development of Pleasant3D!

MakiBox A6 is a new crowd-funded project by Jon Buford in Honk Kong. Price is $300USD each plus $50USD International shipping. The basic kit includes all MakiBox parts with electronics and power supply and 1 kg of plastic (2 x 1/2kg spools of ABS). No software is included but there are plenty of open-source solutions. For example, ReplicatorG (http://replicat.org/) is mentioned as the STL file gateway feeding MakiBox.

The MakiBox uses trapezoidal drive shafts that provide 8mm/revolution travel. Print speed should be around 60-80mm/sec. with 1.8 deg. steppers. There is a heated printbed. The consumable material is typically 1mm ABS plastic which MakiBot will sell for $20USD/kg in 1/2kg spools (which is pretty cheap by today’s standards).